Yasmeen Abutaleb

Having chosen this book as the place where I begin to look at the instant examinations of Donald Trump's disastrous final year in office, what the authors do very well is to document the internecine fight between the medical leadership that tried to craft a coherent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the political appointees trying to get a response that would allow them to keep influence with the Oval Office, and the efforts of Trump's immediate circle to provide Mr. Trump with what he mostly wanted; a way to make COVID magically disappear. File under: First draft of history.… (más)

When in the distant future some robatic historian does an autopsy of the U.S. government's response to the covid 19 pandemic in search of the cold truth, she may use Abutaleb's Nightmare Scenario as a secondary source. It is certainly well enough documented and clearly enough articulated to be useful. It is, however, not cold truth but a warmly passionate and carefully crafted but admittedly slanted study of the Trump administration's handling of the disaster.
It should also be required reading for anyone taking polysci 201.… (más)